Massena, NY, Dec 11, 2012 — Almost ten years ago, a visiting speaker at St. Lawrence University planted a seed. Economist Michael Shuman told an audience that farmers could jolt the North Country economy by producing a lot more meat. "You have a lot more room to produce your own beef cows," Shuman told the Burt Symposium in 2003. "You could produce a lot more of your own pigs. And chickens are not even in the game."

Community leaders have recalled that advice, to have the thousands of local residents who eat chicken buy it from a local farm, many times since.

The idea is about to bear fruit. The first USDA certified poultry slaughterhouses in the North Country are nearly set to begin production.  Go to full article

Apr 23, 2008 — When it comes to healthy, environmentally-friendly eating, "local" has become the new "organic." More and more people want to know what's in their food, who produced it, and how far it traveled to get to the dinner table. Community Supported Agriculture, or CSAs, are a growing way to bring consumers and farmers closer. Think of a CSA as a subscription service for food. A farm in St. Lawrence County is just as comfortable marketing its CSA on the Internet as at the local farmers' market. As David Sommerstein reports, The 8 O'Clock Ranch is challenging what it means to "eat local."  Go to full article

Jun 15, 2007 — Earlier this month, a "Photo of the Day" on our website showed an artist painting the interior of the Old Methodist Meeting House in the St. Lawrence County town of DeKalb. It's part of ongoing restoration work on the building that's now the town museum. Todd Moe stopped by to talk with the artist about milk paint, trompe l'oeil and painting lots of lines.  Go to full article

Mar 21, 2007 — March and April are prime time for maple syrup. It's sugar shack season in the North Country. Todd Moe talks with Vermont syrup producer Jacques Couture, president of the Vermont Maple Foundation; and New York State Maple Queen Courtney Donnelly of St. Lawrence County.  Go to full article

May 11, 2006 — The Town of DeKalb 2006 Performance series begins Friday night (7 pm) at the Old Meetinghouse Museum in East DeKalb. The first performance for the season will be traditional music and dance by a group of Mohawk musicians. Sarah Hern, curator at the Ronathanhonni Cultural Center at Akwesasne on Cornwall Island, spoke with Todd Moe about the group's performance.  Go to full article

May 05, 2006 — It's the eternal struggle of every homeowner in the North Country. How to keep the fast-growing thicket of weeds and brush from taking over the yard? Burn bans have made the task especially daunting this spring. The ban's been lifted, for now. People are burning grass and clearing brush. Here's today's Heard Up North.  Go to full article

Nov 11, 2005 — Each week across the country, thousands of people meet in churches, schools and homes to perform one of the oldest styles of American music. It's called "shaped note" singing. The name comes from the simple musical notation used in the songbooks. The tradition of the shape note singing school dates back to Elizabethan England, and for years, shaped-note music was a southern phenomenon. But it's just as popular in many northern states. Singers sit around a square. There are no instruments -- just the power of voices. Todd Moe recently attended a shaped-note workshop led by "Social Band", a Vermont based singing group, at the Old Meetinghouse Museum in the St. Lawrence county community of East DeKalb.  Go to full article

Mar 30, 2005 — St. Lawrence County police are looking for up to 50 morphine patches and painkillers. Several teens stole the drugs from a house Friday night. As David Sommerstein reports, three teens overdosed on the drugs at a party. One remains in the hospital.  Go to full article

Oct 15, 2003 — Social Band, a Vermont based shape-note singing ensemble, will perform Saturday night (7 pm) at the Old Meeting House Museum in Dekalb. Todd Moe talks with Social Band director Amity Baker about the group's love of traditional and "art" music. Social Band's performances draw from a wide range of repertoires, including American shape-note, medieval and contemporary music.  Go to full article

Aug 27, 2003 — Ron Griffin of Dekalb describes the trials and tribulations of a NASCAR devotee.  Go to full article